Divided Australia? Not over one essential

For or against the war, we should be proud that protests remain peaceful, Mike Seccombe writes.

The scene which unfolded outside the Prime Minister's Canberra residence yesterday morning could not have happened in any other country. And that is probably to Australia's credit.

A few minutes before 6am, a bunch of four-wheel drives - painted to look like United Nations vehicles - drove up and blocked four entrances to The Lodge.

About 40 Greenpeace protesters chained themselves to the gates and to the undersides of the the trucks, or held up banners pronouncing "Howard's war a bloody disgrace" and "John Howard, War Criminal".

It took them all of a minute to have the blockade in place. Then about 20 police turned up, but instead of busting heads, they stood by and watched.

Now, imagine if a bunch of protesters tried to blockade the White House. Some Clint Eastwood wannabe with a magnum under his coat and a wire in his ear would probably have killed someone. Certainly, people would have been brutalised and clapped in irons. In Iraq, there would have been a massacre.");document.write("

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But not here. It was a crisp, fine autumn morning. Overhead, flocks of hot air balloons drifted in the calm; no one was the slightest bit agitated. Federal police obviously decided, as the NSW police had the day before, that these people looked and acted like protesters, not terrorists.

Police, media and Greenpeace members chatted and smiled. One demonstrator brought a big box of doughnuts, which were shared with the cops. Drivers on Adelaide Avenue, the major artery which runs past The Lodge, tooted their approval and waved.

So threatened did Mr Howard feel that he slipped out as usual for his morning walk, pausing briefly on his return to exchange a few words with the Greenpeace group. Each asked the other to respect their views.

The Prime Minister went inside, but emerged again about 8am through a side gate to be driven the short distance to Parliament. Later, he told radio he had no worries about his security, and endorsed people's right to peaceful protest.

Police used bolt cutters to free protesters chained to the fence. For a while it appeared three men would have to be forcibly unchained from beneath the 4WD parked outside The Lodge's front gate. But they eventually agreed to hand over the key and were taken peacefully away to be charged with a breach of the peace.

Greens leader Bob Brown quipped that the protesters should have been charged with upholding the peace.

They had made their anti-war point, and had shown something more: why our society is superior to the flawed and violent one over which George Bush presides, and to most others in the world.

Of course, some will say the blockading 4WDs could have been packed with explosives, just as the protesters on the Opera House the day before could have been packing weapons instead of paintbrushes.

But the point is, they weren't.

Maybe that explains why Australians so overwhelmingly wish to avoid involvement in conflicts between more fanatical nations.